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Banks to defy PM with £2bn bonus

HSBC and Barclays are to defy Gordon Brown's demands for restraint on bonuses by paying out up to £2 billion worth of bonuses in the next few weeks.

HSBC chief executive Michael Geoghegan is believed to be in line for a bonus of more than £1m, in spite of plans by the bank to raise as much as £10 billion from its investors.

Britain's biggest bank is due to report profits of about £14 billion next week despite the global financial chaos. It is expected to confirm it will be paying bonuses running to hundreds of millions of pounds to staff around the world, including investment bankers with "guaranteed" pay deals. Though HSBC has not taken part in tax-payer-funded bailouts, the timing of the payments could further stoke the political controversy over City payouts.

Royal Bank of Scotland struck a controversial deal with the Treasury last week under which the